In defence of the 'pointless coffee'
Kate Richardson
Design your ideal career, Find Your Next? and make it happen | Career Coach | Executive Coach | Career Change Specialist | ?? Clients in 13+ countries
"I promise it won’t be a pointless coffee"
he said apologetically in his Linkedin message. And it wasn’t.
For someone who doesn’t drink the stuff, I like to plan coffee meetings and I find very few of them are ‘pointless’. But in the current climate of peak productivity, we’re often told to politely decline this seemingly wasteful pursuit.
It’s not practical to spend all our days sipping lattes, but the practice of meeting new people and reacquainting ourselves with old ones can be a good one – it can provide you with new connections, energy and ideas, informal mentoring, insights into an area of interest, a good referral and if you’re lucky (as I have been in the last week), a new project.
It also provides an opportunity to be what Adam Grant describes as a ‘giver’ – whether you organise an introduction, do a bit of that informal mentoring, or provide feedback on an idea or business initiative.
So don’t give up the coffee just yet.
Instead, learn how to find your own rhythm and make it manageable and productive in the context of other priorities. For example, in Amantha Imber's How to Work podcast, Carolyn Cresswall explains that she does her ‘coffees’ as scheduled morning phone calls on her drive into work.
I tend to schedule mine as a mix of phonecalls, breakfasts, coffees and the odd after work drink. And I’ve found grouping meetings together on my schedule helps me delineate between ‘maker and manager time’ and ups my productivity.
It’s important to identify periods when coffee dates become a low or high priority. Sometimes, the demands of work (or life) just don’t allow it. But there are other times it’s particularly useful – such as when you’re pursuing change, growth or a different job. This is when reawakening dormant connections and making new ones becomes imperative.
About a decade ago I set myself a '20 coffees in 40 days strategy' in an effort to get reconnected with the market, figure out what might be a good next step and find myself a new job. I had17 coffees (or peppermint teas) and got myself a new gig.
Learn how to build your network and stay connected with people in a way that works for you and your own schedule. Say no when you need to, and yes when you can.
Be generous and be practical.
Innovation | Design | Strategy | CX
5 年Sylvain Emeric
Independent Candidate for the Federal Seat of Gilmore ?? Advocating for RegionalLife. ?? Founder of WorkLife.org.au ?? Co-Chair Flexible Workspace Australia
5 年I say yes quickly, panic often just before (time- oh the time!!) and regret virtually never. But I have had to teach myself the habit of going into each encounter with an idea of what I could get out of it. Great post!
Actor | Singer | Creative Producer represented by Jonah Klein at Cameron’s Management
5 年James Murphy
Mathew Jonston
I’ve been doing it for years, waxing and waning as the career took its path. I call it the ?20min a day“, inspired by ?Asktheheadhunter.com“. It’s about reaching out to seemingly ?useless‘ contacts and hearing their stories while keeping your ears wide open, researching Life. Markets. Business Models. Networks. For both sides, nothing too bad can come of it, as long as expectations are managed from the outset and both are willing to open up and share network contacts. I made it my mission to never leave a coffee without getting the contact/intro to at least one other person that might be relevant for my next objective. So really the 20 minutes a day is meant to create a snowball effect of opportunities and learning. Embrace those times if you can!!